CD Info
2011
Jymden Music
10 Tracks
English Lyrics

Imagine my surprise at seeing a contemporary band named Akribi. Knew I’d heard the term before, just couldn’t remember where. Of course, decades of alcohol and questionable substance abuse will do that to you. But eventually the fog began to clear and once again I saw the snarling face of my old quantitative research professor. Not a sight for the weak of heart, trust me. And the voice that had traumatized my graduate academic experience flowed back to me, like the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, "Akribi, akribi, it’s the .05 level of significance, the Holy Grail of scientific endeavor, you fool. Search for it, worship it, believe in it. It will set you free", or words to that effect. Damn, I get the shakes just thinking about it, hold on while I get a drink to sooth my nerves from the horrors of those long dead daemons. Well, Akribi, for those of you who didn’t have that happy experience to draw upon, is taken from the Greek term akribbeia which means precision or accuracy in scientific or academic contexts. I won’t go into the .05 thing, but, it’s what every psychological experimental design strives for. . . .and rarely achieves. But, you can usually get a publication out of it if you even get marginally close, and isn’t that what it’s all about anyway. The Society of the Statistically Righteous is broad minded that way.

But, this is a music review so I guess it would be appropriate to take this back to context and make a few relevant comments in that arena. The band is from Sweden, they do what would best be described as a brand of progressive metal, but a little different than some of what’s out there. Maybe it’s that .05 level of perfection that sets them apart. This is some mathematically interesting music. I get the feeling they had some musical training from people like the troll I described above, pity that. But, sometimes the harder experiences in life can lead to productive outcomes, and this may be one of them. The music can only be described as "tight". There’s definitely a "jazz fusion" feel to much of the music, whether it’s the guitars, the drums, the keys or the vocals, all of which are solid but which seem to mesh together with an almost statistical feel to them, and I say that in the most positive way. Vocalist Jessica Ahman is no opera star moonlighting in metal, but she has that ability to aim her vocals in a direction that meets the dictates of the material, and the production room seems to have turned her into a multidimensional musical monster; she croons, she screams, she begs, she pleads. And, she does the beautiful when called upon. And there is some truly beautiful here, right next to the truly thundering and the truly complex, but all of it truly entertaining. You get a short 45 second introduction to the band here, short that is on the musical side, but at least we know what the players look like, especially our Scandinavian blond vocalist.

One of the things music reviewers often comment on is the problem of similarity of material within a given production. I’m not typically one of those complainers, but I understand the concern. Well, you damn sure don’t have that here. On more than one occasion I’ve had to check back to my iTunes folder to see if we’d changed over to a new CD when the music sounded so totally different that I didn’t recognize it. Don’t know if that’s always a good thing or not but it is certainly a fact to consider when listening to this material. There are distinct movements between individual tracks, some will rock you, some will sooth you, some will catch you with the interesting hooks that tie them directly to your inner consciousness for weeks to come. But, they will all entertain you. We begin with Puppies of War and I have some thoughts about this one. Most bands like to put their strongest material up front. You want to hook them early, get them to the rest of the material. And, Akribi seems to feel this is one of their strongest numbers. I’m not necessarily in agreement on that decision. It’s not a bad song, some good metal, some decent vocal work, nothing to be ashamed of. But, I found I didn’t listen to this one all that much, it’s not a matter of this one being weak, it’s more a matter of the rest being stronger. I didn’t get the same feeling of mathematical precision from this track that I got from others; it just didn’t measure up in some respects. Others may view it differently.

For me, the truer interpretation of this Swedish sound begins with Where the Water Meets the Sky. Here we begin to glimpse the mathematical purity that drives this material. The beat is almost a reggae sound, but with an emphasis on the guitar that merges with a vocal that is distinctly NOT reggae, much as I love the rhasta. Our lovely blond demonstrates a capability here that takes us to a different place. This is mathematical precision that would make a top jazz musician proud, even a keyboard sound that takes me back to the old masters, from before your time. Surface continues with this mathematical direction. Our guitars move to a precision beat, our vocalist takes us to statistical Nirvana. Lyrically, we get words that leave room for interpretation, over that crunching guitar:

Worlds apart / A smile conserved within a frame
That burns to dust before my eyes
Nowhere left / It seems my words still ricochet
It all falls down and disappears

There’s some solid metal to much of this work, you get it here on this selection. But, the beautiful appears at unanticipated intervals, and provides a glimpse of what will appear later. And, that beautiful appears with devastating clarity. The Plains of Nevermore is one of the more beautiful sounds you’re going to hear in this type of music. A bit of the Green to be sure, some of the Emerald Isle, that haunting sound that we associate with the Irish, but with a Gothic twist. Beauty to be savored, our vocalist may not take us to the operatic in general, but here, she demonstrates an ability that suggests that potential.

However, as I may have mentioned, there are twists and turns to this music, and we never stay in one place too long. These guys demonstrate a psychological ability to morph into new directions faster than the average psychopath on acid. Again, I say that in the best of interpretations. Because, following this truly beautiful presentation, we go to Hell with a song from the cosmic grave, and with a beat. The Sum of It All rocks, our blond vocalist screams here, the pain of existential demonization drives us to otherworldly places where the weak shall perish in flames of everlasting damnation. Well, I do tend to get carried away. And they do it with a contemporary interpretation of reality:

Form opinions based on age,
what all your friends think is the rage.
Everything's delivered / -It's right there on the front page
Where you read of your idol's woes 
But not the child that made your shoes
If you can't see it, it's not there
There's no need to sing the blues

One of the things to mention before closing is that most of these songs are long. No short radio version stuff here, this is serious, well developed material and they take their time presenting it. You damn sure ain’t getting short changed here. You gets your money’s worth. And, they play to a wide variety of interests, and they do it well.

Now, I may be a lowly number cruncher, a stat junkie with no understanding beyond the numbers, but, you have to appreciate music that captures something as complex as my reality. And, when they do it as well as this bunch, you know you have something to treasure. This is a first take, for the most part, and, statistically speaking, it meets that .05 level of significance with room to spare. It sure gets my recommendation for publication. Akribi!

9 / 10

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